Page 1769 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 May 2005
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exact process but I would imagine those parcels of land would either be made available again in subsequent moderate income land ballots or, alternatively, sold through the broader ballot process that the LDA conducts for general estates. I will take the specifics of that question on notice and provide further information.
DR FOSKEY: Thank you. I have a supplementary question. Has the government undertaken any follow up with people who inquired about the ballot to assess why so few of them registered, attended and purchased land in order to improve the program?
MR CORBELL: Yes, there has been some follow up with people who have registered and not subsequently purchased through the ballot. One of the reasons that people do that is that they have a particular block of land they are interested in. If their number is not called early in the ballot process often that block of land has been sold to someone whose number was drawn earlier in the ballot process. The feedback I have had from the Land Development Agency is that one factor—I am not saying it is the only factor—has been that people have had their eye on a particular block of land that has been snapped up by someone else whose number was drawn earlier in the ballot process. They have then decided not to proceed with choosing an alternative block. I would imagine there are other factors and I will certainly undertake to provide some further advice to Dr Foskey.
Budget—public service cuts
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Urban Services. Minister, the 2005-06 budget contains a cut of $32.7 million to the DUS budget over four years. How many of the 260 jobs to be lost in the ACT government sector will be lost in your department?
MR HARGREAVES: I thank Mr Stefaniak for the question. The Department of Urban Services has a number of silos, shall we say, which were constituted in the stewardship of the Leader of the Opposition over there, and we inherited those. We know that one of the biggest sets of grumbles from that lot over there is that potholes are not fixed quickly enough, graffiti is never removed quickly enough—or even sometimes cleaned up a little bit too quickly. Sometimes they complain about cycleways, sometimes they complain about rubbish—that is because they are experts in rubbish.
In respect of the administration of the Department of Urban Services, the creation of the silos under the stewardship of Mr Smyth has created duplication in the administrative processes and contract management within that department. The over-administration and the over-management of that department have resulted in, in my view and in the view of this government, a detrimental effect on the quality of service delivery.
Mr Pratt: What services?
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Pratt, tryingly, as he has to do it under his breath, says, “What services?” That just displays the ignorance that he is becoming well known for. Do keep it up, Mr Pratt. The more you make a goose of yourself, the better we all look!
The simple fact is that there is over-administration and over-concentration on management because of the structures this lot put into place. Because of the
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